China’s Weibo shows user locations to combat ‘bad behaviour’

Weibo, which has over 570 million monthly active users, said users’ IP addresses would be displayed under new settings which came into effect on Thursday and cannot be turned off by users. — Reuters

BEIJING: Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, told users on April 28 it would start to publish their IP locations on their account pages and when they post comments, in a bid to combat “bad behaviour” online.

The move, posted on Weibo’s official account, garnered over 200 million views and was widely discussed, with some users rattled by the perceived reduction in their online anonymity.